Harry Glicken

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Template:Short description Template:Infobox person Harry Glicken (March 7, 1958 – June 3, 1991)<ref name="Obit">Template:Cite journal</ref> was an American volcanologist. He researched Mount St. Helens in the United States before and after its 1980 eruption, and was very distraught about the death of volcanologist David A. Johnston, who was Glicken's mentor and supervisor in Spring 1980 at Mount St. Helens. Glicken was initially assigned to the USGS observation post in the weeks leading up to the eruption but was called away the night before the eruption.

In 1991, while conducting avalanche research on Mount Unzen in Japan, Glicken and fellow volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft were killed by a pyroclastic flow. His remains were found four days later and were cremated in accordance with his parents' request. Glicken and Johnston remain the only American volcanologists known to have died in volcanic eruptions.

Despite a long-term interest in working for the United States Geological Survey, Glicken never received a permanent post there because there was a hiring freeze for federal agencies when he graduated with his PhD. While conducting research from sponsorships granted by the National Science Foundation and other organizations, Glicken accrued expertise in the field of volcanic debris avalanches. He also wrote several major publications on the topic, including his doctoral dissertation based on his research at Mount St. Helens titled "Rockslide-debris Avalanche of May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens Volcano, Washington" that initiated widespread interest in the phenomenon.Template:Sfn

Since being published posthumously by Glicken's colleagues in 1996, the report has been acknowledged by many other publications on debris avalanches. Following his death, Glicken was praised by associates for his love of volcanoes and commitment to his field.

Life and career

Early work

Glicken was born in 1958 to Milton and Ida Glicken.<ref name=Lud>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> He graduated from Stanford University in 1980.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Later that year, while a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he was temporarily hired by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to help monitor the volcano Mount St. Helens in Washington state. St. Helens, dormant since the 1840s and 1850s, resumed activity in March 1980.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

As seismic and volcanic activity increased, volcanologists working for the USGS in its Vancouver branch prepared to observe any impending eruption. Geologist Don Swanson and others placed reflectors on and around the growing lava domes,Template:Sfn and, on May 1, 1980,<ref name="NatGeo"/> established the Coldwater I and II observation posts to use laser ranging to measure how the distances to these reflectors changed over time as the domes deformed. Glicken monitored the volcano for two weeks, taking shelter in a trailer at the Coldwater II site located a little more than Template:Convert northwest of the volcano.<ref name="NatGeo">Template:Cite journal</ref>

On May 18, 1980, after working for six days straight,<ref name=Lud/> Glicken took the day off to attend an interview for his graduate work with his professor, Richard V. Fisher, in Mammoth Lakes, California.Template:Sfn His research adviser and mentor David A. Johnston replaced him at his post,Template:Sfn<ref name=Col>Template:Cite news</ref> despite expressing concerns about its safety given indications of mobile magma within the volcano.<ref name="NatGeo"/> After a magnitude 5.1 earthquake centered directly below the north slope triggered that part of the volcano to slide at 8:32 a.m.,Template:Sfn Mount St. Helens erupted. Johnston was killed after he was enveloped by swift pyroclastic flows that accelerated down the mountain's flanks traveling at least 300 miles per hour (480 kilometers per hour).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

After the eruption, Glicken went to Toutle High School, the center for relief efforts, where he joined Air Force Reserve Rescue Squadron officials in a helicopter to look for Johnston or any sign of his post.Template:Sfn Despite searching with three separate crews over a span of nearly six hours, Glicken found no trace.Template:Sfn He attempted to enlist a fourth helicopter crew to aid his search, but they declined, fearing dangerous conditions. In his distraught state, Glicken refused to accept Johnston's death, and had to be comforted by Swanson before calming down.Template:Sfn

In mid-1980, after the May eruption, USGS Survey scientists decided to establish the David A. Johnston Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) in Vancouver,Template:Sfn intending to closely monitor volcanoes in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Glicken returned to St. Helens hoping to join the 'autopsy' team. However, every aspect of the eruption had been claimed by different survey scientists, and as a doctoral student at UC Santa Barbara studying with Richard Fisher, Glicken was not a survey employee.Template:Sfn

Instead, he found work with newly appointed Survey employee Barry Voight, a specialist in landslides. Under Voight's guidance, Glicken absorbed himself in his work, motivated to earn a job at the Survey, and to relieve some of his anguish over Johnston's death.Template:Sfn Glicken and a team of geologists mapped the debris field left over from St. Helens's structural collapse, which consisted of roughly a quarter of the mass of the volcano. Through extensive, meticulous analysis, the team traced the origins and the means of movement of each piece of debris, ranging from blocks Template:Convert in width to mere fragments.Template:Sfn

With his group, Glicken compiled a landmark study in the field of volcanic landslides, establishing the principle that tall volcanoes have a tendency to collapse.Template:Sfn The study garnered praise for its unique conclusions and attention to detail, Template:Sfn inspiring volcanologists to identify similar deposit mounds at volcanoes around the world. After the findings from his dissertation were published in several shorter articles throughout the 1980s,<ref name=preface/> Glicken earned recognition as the first geologist to explain the creation of hummock fields near tall volcanoes.Template:Sfn

Research after St. Helens and death

In the years following the eruption, activity at Mount St. Helens diminished, prompting USGS to reduce CVO's budget and contemplate closing the station.Template:Sfn Glicken continued helping the Survey until 1989,<ref name=Gain>Template:Cite news</ref> also serving as an assistant researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

From 1989 to 1991,<ref name=eugene>Template:Cite news</ref> Glicken continued his volcanological studies in Japan as a postdoctoral fellow at the Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo, supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Later, while a research professor and translatorTemplate:Sfn at Tokyo Metropolitan University,<ref name=Bend/><ref name=TN>Template:Cite news</ref> Glicken became involved with research at Mount Unzen.<ref name=Bend>Template:Cite news</ref> The volcano had recently resumed eruptive activity in November 1990, after being dormant for 198 years. In the months after its first activity, it erupted sporadically, and the government evacuated its vicinity near the end of May 1991.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:Main On June 2, 1991, Glicken visited the mountain with Katia and Maurice Krafft.<ref name=Gain/> The three entered a danger zone near the base of the volcano the following day, assuming that any potentially hazardous pyroclastic flows would follow a turn in the landscape and safely bypass them. Later that day, a lava dome collapsed,Template:Sfn sending a large flow down the valley at Template:Convert. The current reached the turnTemplate:Sfn before separating into two parts, and the upper, hotter part swiftly overcame the volcanologists' post, killing them upon impact.Template:Sfn

In total, 41 or 42 people died in the incident,Template:Sfn<ref name=UnzenGVP/> including press members who had been watching the volcanologists.Template:Sfn The volcano burned down 390 houses,<ref name=UnzenGVP>Template:Cite web</ref> and the remains of the flow extended Template:Convert in length.Template:Sfn Glicken's remains were found four days later, and were cremated according to his parents' wishes.<ref name=Lud/> To date, Glicken and Johnston are the only American volcanologists known to have been killed by a volcanic eruption.Template:Sfn

Posthumous report

At the time of his death, Glicken had been seeking to publish his doctoral dissertation in one piece, having earlier published elements as shorter articles. He had already defined the criteria for debris avalanches on the slopes of volcanoes, and authored several publications on the subject; Swanson named him one of the foremost experts in the field.Template:Sfn After the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, research in the niche area grew as more studies identified debris at well-known volcanoes. His work on flows at Mount St. Helens is considered the most complete in the field to date. It was later published in 1996 as a single report by his acquaintances Carol Ostengren, John Costa, Dan Dzurisin, and Jon Major, among others, at the United States Geological Survey.<ref name=preface/> In his preface to Glicken's publication, Major comments that "the Mount St. Helens deposit will never be mapped in such detail again."<ref name=preface>Template:Cite web</ref>

Glicken's report is titled "Rockslide-debris Avalanche of May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens Volcano, Washington". It comprises his extensive laboratory and field work, supplemented by photographs of the eruption, writings that describe St. Helens before the eruption, and references to previous publications, including Voight's work.<ref name=glintro1>Glicken, p. 1.</ref> In the report, Glicken constructed a map of the landslide deposit at a scale of 1:24000, followed by a lithologic map describing rock varieties at a scale of 1:12000.<ref name=preface/> The report also provides a conclusion for the movement of each slide block, using photographs and other data to estimate the velocity of each landslide, describing the composition of each, and recounting the interactions between blocks.Template:Sfn

Tributes and legacy

Chatty, noted for being extremely sensitive, Glicken also paid meticulous attention to detail.Template:Sfn One of his friends writes, "Harry was a character his whole life. ... Everyone who knew him was amazed he was such a good scientist."Template:Sfn Regarding Glicken's driving habits, the same acquaintance describes him as "a cartoon character" who "would drive at full speed down the road, talking about whatever was important to him, and ... come to a four-way stoplight and he'd sail through it, never knowing he'd just gone through".Template:Sfn

Glicken's father said in 1991 that his son died pursuing his passion,<ref name=eugene/> and that he was "totally absorbed" with volcanology.<ref name=Lud/> United States Geological Survey co-worker Don Peterson adds that Glicken was keen in his enthusiastic approach to observation, and praises his accomplishments throughout his career and as a graduate student.<ref name=Lud/> Speaking about Glicken's personal passion for his field, his mentor and professor Richard V. Fisher writes, "What happened at St. Helens is something that troubled [Glicken] deeply for a very long time, and, in a way, I think it made him even more dedicated than he was before."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Associate Robin Holcomb remarks that "Harry was very enthusiastic, very bright, and very ambitious, ambitious to do something worthwhile on volcanoes."Template:Sfn Many studies have utilized Glicken's criteria for volcanic landslide recognition, and many subsequent papers on avalanches have acknowledged or referenced Glicken's 1996 report.<ref name=preface/> Reflecting on Glicken's body of work, USGS employee Don Swanson names him as "a world leader in studies of volcanic debris avalanches".Template:Sfn

Glicken was closely connected to the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he earned his doctorate and conducted research. To remember his association with the university, each year the Department of Earth Science awards an outstanding graduate geology student the "Harry Glicken Memorial Graduate Fellowship", established by the Harry Glicken Fund, which aims to support students "who will pursue research relating to the understanding of volcanic processes".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Selected publications

Most of Glicken's published work centers around the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. He also coauthored works with other volcanologists that focused on debris avalanches. Colleague Jon Major writes that "The full scope of Harry's work ... has never been published."<ref name=preface/>

References

Notes

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Sources

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